The baling of hay and other crops in large rectangular bales has become increasingly popular. One attraction of these bales is their shape, which lends itself to stacking much more readily than large round bales. Difficulties have however, been encountered with the stability of the bale stacks. It has been found that the stacks tend to sag and collapse to the front side. In Tilley et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,229, issued Apr. 11, 1995, this is attributed to the drying and shrinkage of the bales. The patent proposes a complex bale manipulating process carried out using a rotating and tilting turntable. This allows the bales to be accumulated on a tilting bed so that they can be arranged in a "tied" stack.
The applicant has now discovered that the bale collapse problem can be attributed to a density differential within the bales. As a large rectangular bale is formed in a baling chamber, the settling of the baled material results in a bale that is denser at the bottom than at the top. As the bale rests in the field, the natural compaction of the bottom of the bale may augment this effect.
With a conventional bale transporter, bales are picked up and inverted as they are loaded onto the bed of the transporter. This places the denser bottom of the bale on top. When the transporter bed is tipped up to deposit the bales in a stack, the denser bottom goes to the back of the stack adjacent the previous layer in the stack. The softer, less dense top is now on the exposed front side. The tendency of the bale is then to settle towards the front, causing instability and potential collapse.
The present invention is concerned with bale improvements in the prior art methods and apparatus for handling bales.